Listen to the Episode
This opening episode of The William Gomes Podcast begins a Lacanian series with a careful and reflective examination of why Jacques Lacan continues to matter today. Rather than positioning psychoanalysis as a closed intellectual system, the episode approaches Lacan as a thinker whose ideas remain quietly active within everyday language, relationships, and self-understanding.
The discussion centres on language as something that shapes experience rather than merely describing it. Speech is shown to carry more than intention, revealing how desire and the unconscious operate through ordinary exchanges. Lacan’s relevance emerges not through abstraction but through familiar moments of misunderstanding, repetition, and uncertainty, where meaning slips and identity feels unresolved.
Throughout the episode, complexity is treated with respect. There is no attempt to reduce Lacan to simplified explanations or instructional summaries. Instead, the pace remains calm and deliberate, allowing ideas to unfold gradually. This creates an accessible entry point without diminishing the seriousness of the concepts being explored.
As an introduction, the episode establishes the ethical and intellectual tone for the series ahead. Lacan is presented not as a historical figure to be mastered, but as an ongoing presence in how people think, speak, and relate. The episode invites listeners to approach psychoanalytic thought as something lived and encountered, rather than merely studied.
